Chapter 22: Ah... Sorry, Actually It's Two Swords!
In the monster corridor of the Dungeon's 6th floor.
Dozens of adventurers were continuously clearing out the gathered monsters around them.
Their strength was mostly Lv.2 or above, so they quickly cleared out the small fries of the upper floors.
Following behind these adventurers, Hestia looked around with some curiosity.
"It feels so amazing... So this is where Luke-kun has been fighting all along?"
"Yes, Kami-sama."
Holding a small silver buckler shield, and grasping a short sword in the other hand, Bell Cranel stayed close to Hestia's side, guarding her against monsters that might appear from the Dungeon at any moment, while continuing with a face full of admiration, "Senpai has been training at such high intensity in this kind of environment every day... It's clearly an easy thing for him, but he insisted on accompanying Liliruca and me to farm monsters on the upper floors every day just to help us understand the power exertion techniques."
Hearing Bell Cranel's words, Liliruca Arde, walking on Hestia's other side, couldn't help but glare fiercely at him.
"White-haired brat, you have no right to talk about Luke-san!"
"Senpai calling me that is one thing... Liliruca, why are you calling me a white-haired brat too?"
"Hmph!"
Turning her head away, no longer paying attention to Bell Cranel, Liliruca's eyes inadvertently swept over the three people at the very back of the team, the Takemikazuchi Familia, including Takemikazuchi-sama, their main god.
They were all following along, searching for traces of Luke.
Perhaps sensing he was being watched, Takemikazuchi turned his head, just in time to meet Liliruca's gaze.
He was stunned for a moment, then quickly showed a gentle smile, made a fist in a 'ganbatte' gesture, and continued searching.
Out of respect for a god, Liliruca forced a smile onto her face, then quickly lowered her head and averted her gaze.
She didn't feel happy or anything because of Takemikazuchi's kindness.
Because she understood very well, the reason the War God Takemikazuchi was willing to personally come into the Dungeon, although partly out of guilt and apology towards Luke-san, was more significantly due to doing Goddess Hestia a favor.
However, regardless of the reason, having an additional god join was at least a good thing.
Under the leadership of their own main god, the three members of the [Takemikazuchi Familia] all did their utmost to search for any clues Luke might have left behind.
But just like the previous floors, apart from the smell of blood permeating the entire cave, they didn't even find a single extra hair.
In the search team of dozens, besides the [Hestia Familia] centered around Hestia, the [Takemikazuchi Familia] centered around Takemikazuchi, there was also the [Hermes Familia] centered around the god Hermes, as well as scattered individuals from several other Familias.
For the gods of the upper world, rashly entering the Dungeon was considered a major taboo.
Even if they obscured their divine radiance, sealed their divine power, and entered purely as ordinary people, it could still trigger unpredictable events.
Yet, this search and rescue operation for Luke actually managed to involve two gods simultaneously.
It had to be said that Hestia's appearance played a crucial role.
The adventurers searched downwards floor by floor.
After a while, they stopped before the vertical passage leading to the 12th floor.
"Goddess Hestia, we've reached the dividing point." A tall man at the front turned around, asking for Hestia's opinion, "Should we continue downwards?"
"Down! We must find Luke-kun, he won't die so easily."
Muttering determined words through gritted teeth, Hestia stepped into the vertical passage without hesitation.
Seeing Hestia's action, all the other adventurers quickly followed, firmly protecting her and the other two gods in the middle of the team.
As for Hestia, although she spoke resolutely just now, she didn't hold much hope in her heart.
An entire night had passed since Luke was trapped alone in the middle floors of the Dungeon.
Such a long time, especially in the middle floors, even if Luke was indeed a powerful adventurer, he would definitely encounter some dangerous situations.
Moreover, she had seen his status; he was just at the very bottom of Lv.2, I-rank.
Therefore, even though she desperately wanted to believe, Hestia really couldn't convince herself that Luke was still alive.
The reason she insisted on continuing the search in the middle floors was merely driven by the mournful wish of wanting to see his body if he was dead.
Compared to monsters whose bodies would be quickly devoured by the Dungeon after death, if a human adventurer died in the Dungeon, their body often wouldn't be consumed until several days later.
Imagining the scene of Luke's remains being directly exposed in the Dungeon if he truly met an unfortunate end, not only Hestia, but Bell Cranel beside her also turned deathly pale, his whole body trembling constantly.
Just thinking that Luke might have died in the middle floors made him feel a churning nausea in his stomach.
Compared to the pessimistic Hestia and the already despairing Bell Cranel, Liliruca seemed much more normal.
It wasn't that she was confident enough in Luke's strength to believe he could survive a night on the second floor, but rather because Liliruca firmly believed only in what she saw.
As long as she hadn't seen Luke's body, she would absolutely not admit that Luke was already dead.
The 13th floor, the 14th floor... all the way to the 16th floor, the rescue team still found nothing.
However, compared to before, both Hestia and Bell Cranel's complexions had improved significantly, and Liliruca was already showing a joyful smile.
Nothing!
They had searched floor by floor from the first floor downwards, meticulously, until the 16th floor, and still hadn't found Luke's body!
Which meant, Luke hadn't died on the previous sixteen floors!
And the next floor, the 17th, as long as Luke wasn't foolish enough to fight the floor master Goliath head-on, if he ran a little faster, he could totally escape to the safe zone on the 18th floor.
Finally revealing a relieved and joyful smile on her face, Hestia followed the others and stepped into the passage leading to the 17th floor.
The vertical passage wasn't long, and soon they reached the bottom.
Directly ahead was the entrance to the 17th floor.
Entering the 17th floor from the entrance, in the vast, boundless space, two constantly intertwining figures instantly attracted everyone's attention.
A seven or eight-meter tall humanoid monster, whose every move made huge sounds—it was precisely the [Lone King of the Labyrinth], Goliath.
And the one fighting against Goliath was a pitch-black figure constantly leaping around the hall.
The moment she saw this figure, Hestia's expression changed dramatically.
First, an indescribable surprise surfaced, followed by an expression of complete relief, but then she stared fixedly at Goliath and became nervous again.
Bell Cranel and Liliruca were much the same, Liliruca even couldn't help but excitedly call out "Luke-san" towards the black shadow from afar.
Although they couldn't clearly see who the sword-wielding black shadow was, neither Hestia, nor Bell Cranel, nor Liliruca doubted his identity.
After all, in the entire Labyrinth City Orario, the flashy combination of black hair, black eyes, black clothes, and black sword seemed to have only been done by Luke.
Moreover, if it were just a similar appearance, it might be dismissed, but the sharp feeling currently permeating the entire space of the 17th floor, seemingly capable of cutting one's skin, couldn't be faked.
Hearing Liliruca's sudden call of "Luke-san" from afar, Luke's mind wavered slightly, and the defensive line he was desperately holding instantly collapsed.
Goliath's massive yet agile figure rapidly approached.
Its left hand blocked Luke's longsword, while its right hand fiercely slapped towards his chest, the immense force penetrating his ribs and entering his chest cavity.
Instantly, like his heart was directly crushed, even with Luke's current constitution close to 70, he was hit so hard that his blood surged wildly.
Almost at the same time he endured Goliath's slap, Luke felt some of his internal organs shift.
"Guu— Waaah..."
He only had time to open his mouth and spit out a mouthful of dark, filthy blood before, the next moment, a fierce gale exploded on Luke's chest, sending him flying violently.
While airborne, Luke barely managed to avoid fainting on the spot thanks to the pain resistance brought by his spirit attribute.
When he rotated to face the ground, he suddenly forcefully stabbed the longsword in his hand downwards.
After skidding with a trail of sparks, he finally came to a stop.
And quite coincidentally, the direction Luke was sent flying by Goliath was precisely towards Hestia's side.
"Uwaah... Oof..."
As soon as he stopped, Luke knelt curled up on the ground, supporting himself with one hand on his sword, dry heaving repeatedly.
Damn it! He absolutely couldn't have predicted this.
As the 17th floor master, Goliath's strength was definitely rule-breaking.
At the very least, this strength alone, saying it was over a hundred points would be an underestimation.
"Luke-san...!"
"Luke-kun!"
"Senpai, are you okay!"
Seeing Luke sent flying over, Liliruca, Hestia, and Bell Cranel anxiously wanted to check his condition, but were dodged by Luke—once he accepted help from teammates, he would exit the 500% [Solo Player] state.
"Wait... Don't come over yet."
Forcibly enduring the intense burning pain inside his body, Luke took a few steps back, avoiding Liliruca and the others, then his peripheral vision swept over a figure not far behind him.
Her face was hidden by a greyish-brown hooded cloak; only the slight curve of her chest and the short skirt on her lower body indicated she was a female adventurer.
Doesn't matter if it's a man or woman though...
"Excuse me..." Turning around, quickly walking up to this adventurer, Luke got straight to the point, "Could I borrow your sword to use for a moment?"
While speaking, his gaze remained locked on her waist.
It was a cyan rapier sheathed in a deep green leather scabbard, filled with a feminine sense of lightness.
Even just observing it from the side, one could intuitively feel that its quality was absolutely top-tier, an excellen weapon.
"..."
The female adventurer shrouded in the cloak seemed somewhat surprised, or perhaps she was hesitating whether to lend the sword to Luke, so she just stood there dumbly without speaking.
And just at this moment...
"AIOOOOOO!!!"
Goliath's angry roar came.
Luke turned his head just in time to see Goliath preparing to charge towards his side.
His pupils instantly shrank violently.
He couldn't bother with politeness anymore and directly reached out, drawing the rapier from the female adventurer's side.
The instant the rapier entered his hand, on the exclusive skill tree panel of [Black Swordsman], a golden skill frame on the second tier shone brightly.
[[Dual Wielding] Lv.1 (9999/10000): When holding a sword in each hand, all stats slightly increase, gain attack correction, agility slightly increases, combat intuition enhanced;
When injured, trigger the exclusive Dual Wielding state, the effect of attacks received is slightly reduced, the effect of attacks dealt is slightly enhanced. The reduction (or enhancement) magnitude changes with the severity of injuries, maximum reduction (or enhancement) to 20% (or 200%) attack effect.]
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